Greg Thompson is the best Oblivion NPC
Almost fifteen years ago (come the 20th of March) The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion released. I missed it at the time - my first Elder Scrolls experience was shouting really loudly in people’s faces in Skyrim. Over the years, the awkward AI and voiceacting of the NPCs in Oblivion has become a bit of a meme. There’s a whole reason as to why they’re so awkward here, but the gist of it is Oblivion NPCs have weird conversations that sound oddly humourous.
I first became aware of the Oblivion NPC meme when my friend sent a live stream of a video simply called ‘Oblivion NPC Dialogue Live Stream’ from Whacked-Out Entertainment. Watching it I was completely confused as to what I was watching. The live stream was a series of short videos, showing a man in an American accent going about his day, talking to a camera man and making what seemed to be simple observations. The screen was mocked up to look like the HUD from Oblivion, including a section for the man/NPC’s name, which was Greg Thompson. I was still so confused. DId this man make these videos as a parody of Oblivion? They looked old. Was that deliberate?
Dipping into the vast realms of other ‘Oblivion NPC Memes’ I found a lot of mean spirited and seemingly exploitative videos where people with mental health conditions were filmed as passed off as an Oblivion NPC. It didn’t really sit right with me. So why did this new one work without feeling exploitative? Who is Greg Thompson?
Looking into it I discovered Greg Thompson is an English teacher from Texas, who in the late 80s and early 90s made his own educational show At Home with English which was broadcast on public access television. In the episodes, Mr Thompson teaches how grammer is used in every day conversation, displayed through his nosy camera man who won’t stop asking questions. Greg speaks clearly, distinctly and slowly, obviously to help aide his students, but as it turns out, a bit like a bad NPC.
The reason I’m writing about this is because I think it’s a good example of Convergence. This old media that was created to help non native English language speakers, has been repackaged if you will, into a form of (extremely niche) entertainment, that importantly for me, doesn’t feel mean spirited.
It’s not just me though. Greg Thompson’s NPC videos have been steadily uploading from late 2020 and checking the comments shows that fans are actively engaging with it and even creating, or asking questions of, the lore around Greg Thompson. I can see why. Each video seems to show different snapshots into the live of this version of Greg Thompson, who likes carpentry, riding his bike, swimming and sliding on floors since he was 3 years old.
Through his performance in the videos, Thompson, most likely unintentionally, creates a character who seems to have a wide eyes, innocent and wholesome outlook at the world. Other dramatic events in Greg’s life include him scandalously getting robbed “Why would someone rob me!?” he says, looking around his trashed living room, “I am not rich!”, getting stuck on a roof, standing up to an abusive boss and deliberating what to wear to that night’s party.
Perhaps it’s just the horrific world we currently live in, but I needed these. Greg lived rent free in my head over the next few days while I was still processing everything. Did he ever get his TV back? Did he find a new job? Why does the camera man (Mr Perfect) keep asking him all of these random questions? Why was he digging that massive hole, is he really a Necromancer?
More videos keep getting uploaded, most recently a trip to the supermarket where Greg puts too many things in his basket and struggles to carry them. The biggest question that kept me up at night was what was Greg Thompson doing now?
The most recent interview is here from 2009. Some people in the comments have recently asked for an update and I am pleased to say that according to those who did the interview in 2009, Mr. Thompson is still happily living in Texas, though may be unaware of his sudden internet fame. Thank God.
The live streams of edited videos broadcast every few days. Here’s one that’s currently live. This is the content we need right now.
